Lower limits on R-parity-violating couplings in supersymmetric models with light squarks -: art. no. 201801

We interpret the results of searches for strongly interacting massive particles to place absolute lower limits on R-parity-violating couplings for squarks with mass (m((q) over tilde)) below 100 GeV. Recent searches for anomalous isotopes require that there be a baryon-number-violating or lepton-number-violating coupling larger than 10(-22)-10(-21) if m((q) over tilde)>18 GeV. Using data from searches for stable particles at the CERN Large Electron Positron Collider (LEP) we demonstrate that this lower limit increases by 14 orders of magnitude, to an R-parity-violating coupling larger than 10(-8)-10(-7) for any squarks of mass less than 90 GeV. In the presence of an R-parity-violating coupling of this magnitude, neutralinos cannot explain the dark matter density in the Universe.